(ERGO) – Access to health care services including maternity is now accessible for families living in a low-income part of Kismayu in southern Somalia, following the opening of a new health centre.
Around 1,500 families who returned from Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya have settled in Midnimo neighbourhood, which had no access to medical health services.
In 2016, 1,500 houses were built for the returnee families and other poor families in the area, 10 km from Kismayu town.
The MCH was inaugurated in December. Before it opened, pregnant mothers used to walk to Kismayugeneral hospital for delivery. The lucky ones could spend $25 dollar to hire a vehicle to get to the hospital.
Fadumo Farah Mohamed is among the first 30 mothers to use the new centre. She had been anxious about getting the right help for her delivery and was relieved when the MCH opened in time for her to give birth there.
“When I realised that I was going into labour, I walked to the centre for assistance. I was helped by midwives and doctors,” she said. “The doctors also gave me medicine and I was taken back to my house by an ambulance.”
The MCH was funded by the German aid agency, GIZ, and built by Mercy Corps with equipment from Save the Children. Save the Children pays salaries for the 36 staffers working at the centre, including six doctors, six midwives, six nurses, eight nutritionists and a pharmacist in addition to six cleaners and watchmen.
According to Faiso Ahmed Ali, a nurse at the MCH,they have so far treated 329 women and children from various diseases including malaria and malnutrition, as well as the maternity care cases.
Women with pregnancy-related complications are referred to Kismayu for superior medical attention using the centre’s ambulance.
Farhiyo Adan Abdi had her baby last October before the centre opened. It was prolonged labour and she lost a lot of blood. Her family hired a car costing $25 dollars to take her to Kismayuhospital where she delivered.
“When I felt labour pain, I called the Kismayugeneral hospital ambulance, but they told me they were engaged on another duty. I had no other alternative but to hire a car. I was bleeding profusely when I was taken to the hospital but thankfully, I delivered at the hospital,” she said.
Farhiyo welcomed the new MCH, saying it would improve services for local women and would also save the lives of many mothers in the area.
